Scorecard

Luke Pomersbach dragged Western Australia into respectable territory after his more fancied team-mates faltered, as the Warriors reached 9 for 272 against Victoria. Pomersbach looked set for his second consecutive century when he fell for 89, leaving Darren Wates to see out the day on 31 with Mathew Inness on 9.On a pitch that offered generous seam movement Pomersbach was the only batsman to look really comfortable as Shane Harwood, Gerard Denton and Dirk Nannes each grabbed two wickets. Rob Quiney, who had never bowled in a first-class match, also chipped in with 2 for 22 and extracted impressive outswing with his medium-pace offerings.The tale could have been worse for the visitors if Victoria had held their catches. Brad Hodge dropped a sitter at mid off when Pomersbach was 78, Nannes spilled an even easier chance at mid on with Wates on 2, and Bryce McGain and Harwood each missed gettable chances.Pomersbach was less aggressive than usual, compiling watchfully and clearing the boundary once, with a flick over midwicket off Quiney. His most ambitious stroke brought his downfall as he backed away and swiped wildly, edging Denton behind in the first over of the second new ball.Several of his colleagues made promising starts including Adam Gilchrist, who showed his class with two sweetly-timed drives for four before popping a simple return catch to McGain on 29. Adam Voges (33) and Shaun Marsh (29) failed to convert and Justin Langer also fell after a brisk 27, edging behind off Nannes.The ball swung significantly in Melbourne’s overcast conditions as Victoria’s attack backed up the captain Cameron White’s decision to send Western Australia in. The day began with Michael Hussey’s brief comeback from a hamstring injury – he opened with Langer and was trapped lbw to a Denton inswinger from the third ball of the match.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Shoaib Malik excelled with both bat and ball as Pakistan notched up the consolation win that reduced India’s margin of victory in the one-day series to 3-2. A 168-run partnership with Mohammad Yousuf revived Pakistan’s stuttering innings, and he then picked up the key wickets of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma as an under-strength team outlasted an Indian side that had also rested four regulars.By the time Malik arrived in the middle, Sreesanth had struck in each over of his second spell to transform a promising start (65 for 0) into a decidedly rocky one (77 for 3). But with Yousuf in the sort of form that fetched him an unbeaten 99 in the previous game, the innings was steadily rebuilt, first with singles, and then with big hits over midwicket and through the covers.Malik’s innings was laced with some good fortune too, with top-edged pulls off Sreesanth and Praveen Kumar, the debutant, falling safe, but the manner in which he and Yousuf took on India’s slow bowlers completely changed the complexion of the innings.Yousuf was again at his unhurried, classy best. He picked the gaps on the leg side cleverly and cut the ball behind point fluently when the bowlers erred. He was well on track for the century that he had missed both in Guwahati and Gwalior, but was flummoxed when the previously expensive Yuvraj Singh spun one past the bat as he lunged forward.Malik’s 82-ball 89 had ended in similar fashion just minutes earlier, with Murali Kartik deceiving him in the flight. But Misbah-ul-Haq and the impressive Fawad Alam finished with a flourish to ensure that the exit of the two established batsmen didn’t really affect the final total.India’s reply was doomed almost from the start, with Sohail Tanvir and Iftikhar Anjum doing the damage. Sourav Ganguly was among the four rested, and it was Gautam Gambhir who emerged to open with Sachin Tendulkar. He cut and flicked Tanvir for two fours, but was fortunate to be reprieved when a thick edge just brushed the fingertips of second slip. His luck didn’t last though, and when he played down the wrong line, he was plumb in front.Tendulkar got going with two gorgeous cuts for four off Umar Gul, but Robin Uthappa, promoted to No. 3, struggled in conditions where the ball moved around. Anjum was dismayed when a flashing edge was put down by Misbah at slip, but he didn’t need to frown for long. With his feet statuesque, Uthappa repeated the shot, and this time Misbah’s fingers weren’t slippery.Tendulkar was carrying on where he left off in Gwalior, cover-driving and flicking Tanvir with superb timing. But when he was drawn to play one that angled well away from him, Misbah was on hand once again to take the catch. That put India on the back foot, and it was backs-to-the-wall moments later when Virender Sehwag had a grotesque dart at another Tanvir delivery that angled across. Sarfraz Ahmed took his first catch in ODIs, and India were in disarray at 62 for 4.Yuvraj struggled horribly early on, getting off the mark from the 11th ball he faced, a fortuitous inside edge for four. His timing was awry, and when Anjum thumped him on the helmet with a well-directed short ball, it exemplified India’s travails. But Rohit Sharma played himself in and then proceeded to play some gorgeous shots, including a six on-the-walk over mid-off, as an 81-run partnership revived Indian hopes.But a tame loft to long-on ended his innings, and when Yuvraj, who had overcome early jitters to post yet another 50, was given out caught off the arm, Malik and Pakistan sensed their moment. Dhoni, who appeared to damage an ankle while running a single, lost patience and miscued one to cover, and Kumar made little impact. It was left to Irfan Pathan to reduce the margin as the match petered out.Sharma’s composure and class apart, India could take some comfort from the performances of Kumar and Sreesanth. Sreesanth struggled for line and fluency against the left-hand Salman Butt, and it was Kumar who was clearly more impressive in the first spell. Bowling in the low 130s for the most part, he got some movement and troubled both batsmen with his accuracy before a couple of wayward deliveries at the end of the spell allowed the batsmen to score a few.

Sreesanth went for 20 in his first three overs, but when he returned, it was a different tale. Butt miscued a pull to short mid-on, and Yasir Hameed was also undone by steep bounce outside his off stump. Imran Nazir had been largely becalmed on his way to 20, but when a slower ball came his way outside off stump, he couldn’t resist the temptation. The swipecame straight back at Sreesanth, who took a smart catch.That was as good as it got for the capacity crowd. Malik and Yousuf wrested the initiative, and a young pace attack along with Alam – who showed nice variations despite going wicketless – made light of the absence of Shoaib Akhtar to script an emphatic victory. For Malik, the star of the show, it was the perfect note with which to end one campaign and prepare for a more testing one.

ScorecardMonde Zondeki, the right-arm fast bowler, tore through the West Indian batting line-up with five wickets to restrict the tourists to 193 after they opted to bat. Even though South Africa A replied strongly – 78 for 1 at the close with Neil McKenzie, the captain, unbeaten on 43 – the day belonged to Zondeki who played the last of his five Tests for South Africa over two years ago.Despite two early losses, the West Indians were well-placed at 83 for 2 before a flurry of wickets – including a second-ball duck for Shivnarine Chanderpaul – had them reeling on 112 for 7. A spirited fightback by Runako Morton (54) and useful 40s from Darren Sammy and Rawl Lewis helped them to 193. Sammy and Lewis shared 57 for the eighth wicket and hit 11 fours and a six between them.Charl Langeveldt and Vernon Philander took two wickets apiece to back-up Zondeki, who has been in excellent domestic form this season with 44 wickets in seven matches.South Africa A lost an early wicket when Alviro Petersen was bowled by Sammyfor 8. But Morne van Wyk and McKenzie put on an unbroken 63 for the second wicket as the visiting bowlers struggled in their only first-class fixture before a three-Test series starting in Port Elizabeth next Wednesday.

Adam Gilchrist believes Australia’s attack is much better prepared to challenge India’s strong batting line-up than when the teams last met in Australia in 2003-04. During that visit India drew the series 1-1 and they posted strong first-innings totals of 409, 523, 366 and 705.Australia were without Shane Warne, who was sitting out because of his drugs ban, and Glenn McGrath, who had an ankle injury. Those two stars are now retired but Gilchrist is confident that any of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg can trouble India this time around.”They [India] have done well before without those two guys around, but I sense we’ve got a much more mature bowling group this year than what we did four years ago,” Gilchrist told the . “We have no doubt teams will feel a bit more confident without those guys in the line-up and that’s the challenge for us.”During the 2003-04 campaign Australia used five fast men – Lee, Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel, Brad Williams and Nathan Bracken – and Stuart MacGill struggled to claim wickets. But Gilchrist was pleased with the way Australia’s new-look attack handled the recent Tests against Sri Lanka and he felt the bowling performances of four years ago would not be repeated.”The reality [of missing Warne and McGrath] kicked in during those first two Tests [against Sri Lanka],” he said. “I thought our bowling efforts didn’t wane at all. The guys stepped up in the absence of those two legends.”[India] certainly presents a bigger challenge because we’re playing against a more reputable batting line-up that will be confident against a team without those two players. There will be some hard slogs, but I think we’ve got the maturity there now to deal with it.”

Andrew Symonds’ latest column for News Limited papers, in which he has attacked Cricket Australia, was pulled after it was not approved by the board for publication. Symonds was instead interviewed by the , where the column was to run, and he spoke of the frustrations of the players over CA’s sponsorship restrictions for the Indian Premier League (IPL), which, he felt, could hamper their participation in the tournament.”Right now a lot of the boys in the Australian side are excited about maybe taking part in the Indian Twenty20 series called the IPL in April,” Symonds said. “But we can’t quite work out what’s going on with the chiefs at Cricket Australia, who seem to be trying to run interference by putting up a heap of red tape.”To be brutally honest, as players we just can’t understand the stance they’ve taken. We’re all keen to have a hit if the tour of Pakistan gets called off, but Cricket Australia have played what looks like a bit of a trick shot.”Peter Young, the CA media director, said there were inaccuracies in Symonds’ column and there would be a player briefing in the coming week. “Cricket Australia is working hard to ensure the IPL is a success and we are keen to see it go ahead with Australian player participation,” he said. “That is subject to some complex issues still being negotiated with India which will be detailed to players next week.”The Australian body had earlier said it could veto its contracted players’ participation in case of competing sponsorship issues. CA had expressed concerns over players endorsing products during the IPL that could clash with its own sponsors’ interests. However, Lalit Modi, the chairman and commissioner of the IPL, warned the Australian players’ participation would be at risk if CA didn’t soften its stance.Symonds said he couldn’t get the logic behind CA’s stance. “It’s my understanding Cricket Australia are trying to say that Aussie players can’t play for teams who are sponsored by competitors to Cricket Australia sponsors,” Symonds said.”The way I see it, Queensland are sponsored by XXXX and South Australia are sponsored by WestEnd – but Cricket Australia is sponsored by Foster’s. So CA is trying to say that’s a conflict of interest and because of that we can’t play.”The weird thing is for years the Pura Cup sponsors have always conflicted with CA sponsors. And it’s the same for blokes like Warney [Shane Warne], Simon Katich and Justin Langer who play county cricket in England.”Symonds’ comments come after Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, said interference on part of the board would be unfair. Like Symonds, Ponting too felt CA’s stance on sponsor protection was odd since the IPL was a domestic tournament, similar to the county season in England.The allrounder suggested that the tournament was being taken seriously by him and his team-mates. “This is a pretty big deal for us as players because the IPL looks like being a sensational tournament where the world’s best cricketers get to have a crack at Twenty20,” Symonds said. “As players, we can’t work out whether CA are deliberately trying to be difficult or what the problem is.”Hopefully common sense prevails and Cricket Australia don’t try and stand in the way of what’s an exciting opportunity and a great concept for cricket. In relation to the Pakistan tour, the Australian players just want to make sure that, if it’s called off, then we can still play in the IPL. The players’ association are working hard to try and clear the way so hopefully we can work something out.”

The first day of matches in the Under-19 World Cup appear to be, on paperat least, a series of mismatches: Australia play Namibia in Penang,Malaysia face defending champions Pakistan in Johor, while England take onneighbours Ireland in Kuala Lumpur. The biggest mismatch, though, could beat the Kinrara Oval where India, who are expected to progress towards thefinal rounds, play the qualifiers from the East Asia Pacific region, PapuaNew Guinea.The difference between the two teams, and countries, couldn’t be starker.India are entertaining thoughts of a sizeable victory, keeping an eye onthe net run-rate in a group which includes South Africa and West Indies;Papua New Guinea have lost each of their 18 matches in their four previousappearances in this tournament. Millions of children play cricket in Indiawhereas only a few thousand play the game in Papua New Guinea, primarilybecause the facilities are minimal and the equipment too expensive.The Papua New Guineans realise that hardly anybody is giving them a chanceof upsetting India and the reality is that, apart from coping with theopposition, several of their cricketers will be facing additionalproblems, which are inconceivable for established teams like India.The majority of the Papua New Guinea team have never played on a turfwicket, because there isn’t a single turf facility in their country.Arua Dikana, Colin Amini, Lua Nou, Willie Gavera and Tony Ura and the onlyones who’ve had some experience on turf and that was because they went toAustralia as part of an East Asia Pacific squad. They don’t have anyacademies in Port Moresby, the capital city and the main cricketingcentre, either.Vic Williams, who is an employee of Queensland Cricket and has beenassociated with developing the sport in Papua New Guinea for the last twoyears, believes that turf wickets will pose the greatest challenge. “Thereare no turf wicket facilities in Port Moresby,” Williams said. “They playon concrete wickets with mats rolled out on the top.”The Papua New Guinea players appeared to be extremely fit and athleticduring their practice session at the Kinrara Oval. They had a high-energycatching session and were enthusiastically cheering each other on at thenets. Williams said that the players were at their best when they were”laughing and having fun”, but a huge problem area was sustaining theconcentration levels and intensity for the duration of the 100 overs.”They don’t get tested for 50 overs in the club cricket that they play.The boys can play good cricket but in short patches. So they need tostring those patches together and play good cricket over a long period oftime.”Unlike India, who won both their warm-up matches against New Zealand andEngland, Papua New Guinea lost theirs to Ireland and Malaysia because oftheir inability to sustain their performance through the course of thematch.”Our first 16 overs in the field against Malaysia were exceptional,”Williams said. “They were sliding, there were assists with flick throws,and two people were chasing every ball. But when we got to the drinksbreak, they fell apart and it went back to club stuff.”It’s about mental concentration and the ability to keep that [intensityand concentration] going over a long period of time. It’s a big learningcurve, to learn how to put together three sessions in the field and then three sessions with the bat. We should have won againstIreland. We were about 30-40 runs short with the bat because we lost ourlast six wickets for 12. Ireland got there with eight wickets down.”The problems with the Papua New Guinea batting are as simple as playingstraight when the ball is directed at the stumps. “They’re like the West Indianswhen they bat: they like to hit the ball and are a bit cavalier in theirapproach,” Williams said. “Against Malaysia, the biggest downfall was theshot selection. About six guys were out playing across the line. It’s apatience thing because they can get away with that in club cricket.”

Undoubtedly the problems are due to the lack of facilities at home. Onconcrete strips the bounce is true, so the players can hit across the line. They also get used to playing lofted shots simply because the grass on the outfields at Amini Park is often left uncut, which means batsmen don’t get value forwell-timed shots along the ground.A big positive, though, is Papua New Guinea’s bowling attack. In WillieGavera, Loa Nou and Jacob Mado, a left-arm bowler, they have threestrapping fast bowlers who hit the pitch hard at a sharp pace. ColinAmini, their captain, bowls offspin and has a doosra in his armoury.”For them it’s about learning how to wins games,” Williams said. “They’vegot self belief but they have to get across the line.” The odds of PapuaNew Guinea getting there against India might be negligible, but if they canbegin strongly and sustain themselves for the majority of the game, theymight just catch one off the tournament favourites by surprise.

Big picture

After ringing the changes for the second Test in Wellington and winning the game to square the series, England are a reinvigorated outfit and bubbling with confidence. With James Anderson (match figures of 7-130) and Stuart Broad both demonstrating the benefits of youth in Wellington, it is New Zealand who are on the back foot approaching the decider in Napier. However, unlike the Basin Reserve’s fast-and-springy pitch, Napier’s McLean Park is expected to be flat and lifeless and New Zealand will miss the relative experience of Kyle Mills, ruled out with a knee injury. Will his replacement, the Under-19 fast bowler Tim Southee, inspire New Zealand as much as Broad and Anderson roused England last week? Stephen Fleming, playing in his 111th and final Test, will dearly hope so.

Form guide – England

Last five matches: LDDLWPlayer to watch: Kevin Pietersen’s form dip has quickly become a troublesome trough. Not since his 101 against India last summer has he hit so much as a fifty. He continues to in good form but judging by the exasperated grin which spread across his face after being run out in Wellington, he is all too aware of his plight. Napier’s lifeless track and an inexperienced New Zealand attack might be the trigger he needs.

Form guide – New Zealand

Last five matches: LWWWLPlayer to watch: Stephen Fleming has, by his own admission and strictly statistically speaking, underperformed with the bat in a career that has spanned 14 years. Approaching his 111th and final Test, he still needs 113 runs to secure his long-sought goal of averaging 40 and, timing the ball as well as he ever has, don’t discount one last hurrah.

Team news

Mills has failed to recover from his injured knee, prompting a call-up for Southee, the 19-year-old swing bowler. Mills’s absence might be a blessing in disguise; Southee was named Player of the Tournament in last month’s Under-19 World Cup for his 17 wickets at 6.64 and John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, has already highlighted his ability to swing. England, on the other hand, are expected to remained unchanged following their 126-run win in Wellington.New Zealand Jamie How, Matthew Bell, Stephen Fleming, Mathew Sinclair, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Brendon McCullum (wk), Daniel Vettori (capt), Jeetan Patel, Tim Southee, Chris Martin.England (probable) Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan (capt), Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Tim Ambrose (wk), Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, Monty Panesar, James Anderson.UmpiresDaryl Harper and Rudi Koertzen

Pitch & conditions

The last time these sides met in Napier was for that thrilling tied ODI when New Zealand couldn’t overhaul England’s 340, and the Test pitch is widely expected to play much the same. Phil Stoyanoff, the head curator, confirmed it will offer plenty of pace and bounce to allow batsmen to play their shots, but the margin of error for bowlers is likely to be miniscule. A pitch for both batting sides to fill their boots.Weather: A few showers and light east to south-east winds (The New Zealand Metservice)

Stats & trivia

• Four out of the five Tests staged in Napier have ended in a draw. Sri Lanka claimed the one win, beating New Zealand in 1995
• New Zealand haven’t beaten England at home since 1984. England’s last series win in New Zealand was under Mike Atherton in 1996-97

Quotes

“I’m trying to be deadpan about my retirement. The emotions will creep in from the people around me, but I’m trying to be very statistically motivated in the goals that I’ve set. I’m not always that good at following them, but I’ve tried to really get into them. One of them was 7000 runs, another was ten hundreds. It’s a focus to get away from the emotions of Test cricket.”
“He’s a class bowler and the selectors have been watching him for some time. They believe he’s ready for the job.”
“The hardest part of watching was when the team were gathering on the outfield for their huddle. I could not help wondering what was being said and it felt a little strange that I was not out there.”